A stone sculpture of Laozi, located north of Quanzhou at the foot of Mount Qingyuan
Laozi is an honorific title. Lao (老) means "venerable" or "old", such as in laoshi (老 师 ), "teacher". And Zi (子) , Laozi was also known as Lao Laizi (老 莱 子 "Old Master")
During the Tang Dynasty Lao Tse was given the title of Taishang xuanyuan huangdi which means "Supreme Mysterious and Primordial Emperor".
Taoists call him Taishang Laojun meaning "One of the three pure ones."
His surname was Li (李 "plum"), and his personal name was Er (耳 "ear") or Dan (聃 "long ear"). It is said that he had extraordinally big ear
Legends tell of he was concept when his mother was gazing at a falling star, he stayed in the womb for 62 years, and was born when his mother leaned against a plum tree. He accordingly emerged a grown man with a full grey beard and long earlobes, which are a symbol of wisdom and long life. In other versions he was reborn in some thirteen incarnations since the days of Fuxi; in his last incarnation as Laozi he lived to nine hundred and ninety years, and spent his life traveling to reveal the Dao.
He was believed that he was an official in the imperial service, working as the keeper of the Archives for the royal court of Zhou. This permit to gained broad access to the works of the Yellow Emperor and other classics of the time. Although he never opened a formal school, but somehow he had a great number of students and loyal disciples, and wrote a book in two parts before departing to the West. In It is believe that Laozi was Lao Laizi (老 莱 子 "Old Master"), and he was a contemporary of Confucius, who wrote a book in 15 parts. It is claimed that he is a grand historian and astrologer Lao Dan (老 聃 "Old Long-ears"), who lived during the reign (384–362 BCE) of Duke Xiàn (獻 公 ) of Qin.
